The Elements of Drawing In Three Letters to BeginnersBy: John Ruskin (1819-1900)

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Library Edition

THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
JOHN RUSKIN

ELEMENTS OF DRAWING AND
PERSPECTIVE
THE TWO PATHS
UNTO THIS LAST
MUNERA PULVERIS
SESAME AND LILIES
ETHICS OF THE DUST

National Library Association
New York Chicago

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING

IN THREE LETTERS TO BEGINNERS.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFACE ix

LETTER I.
ON FIRST PRACTICE 1

LETTER II.
SKETCHING FROM NATURE 65

LETTER III.
ON COLOR AND COMPOSITION 106

APPENDIX I.
ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES 183

APPENDIX II.
THINGS TO BE STUDIED 188

["The Elements of Drawing" was written during the winter of 1856. The
First Edition was published in 1857; the Second followed in the same
year, with some additions and slight alterations. The Third Edition
consisted of sixth thousand, 1859; seventh thousand, 1860; and eighth
thousand, 1861.

The work was partly reproduced in "Our Sketching Club," by the Rev. R.
St. John Tyrwhitt, M.A., 1874; with new editions in 1875, 1882, and
1886.

Mr. Ruskin meant, during his tenure of the Slade Professorship at
Oxford, to recast his teaching, and to write a systematic manual for the
use of his Drawing School, under the title of "The Laws of Fésole." Of
this only vol. i. was completed, 1879; second edition, 1882.

As, therefore, "The Elements of Drawing" has never been completely
superseded, and as many readers of Mr. Ruskin's works have expressed a
desire to possess the book in its old form, it is now reprinted as it
stood in 1859.]

ADVERTISEMENT

TO

THE SECOND EDITION.

As one or two questions, asked of me since the publication of this work,
have indicated points requiring elucidation, I have added a few short
notes in the first Appendix. It is not, I think, desirable otherwise to
modify the form or add to the matter of a book as it passes through
successive editions; I have, therefore, only mended the wording of some
obscure sentences; with which exception the text remains, and will
remain, in its original form, which I had carefully considered. Should
the public find the book useful, and call for further editions of it,
such additional notes as may be necessary will be always placed in the
first Appendix, where they can be at once referred to, in any library,
by the possessors of the earlier editions; and I will take care they
shall not be numerous.

August 3, 1857.

PREFACE.

i. It may perhaps be thought, that in prefacing a manual of drawing, I
ought to expatiate on the reasons why drawing should be learned; but
those reasons appear to me so many and so weighty, that I cannot quickly
state or enforce them. With the reader's permission, as this volume is
too large already, I will waive all discussion respecting the importance
of the subject, and touch only on those points which may appear
questionable in the method of its treatment.

ii. In the first place, the book is not calculated for the use of
children under the age of twelve or fourteen. I do not think it
advisable to engage a child in any but the most voluntary practice of
art. If it has talent for drawing, it will be continually scrawling on
what paper it can get; and should be allowed to scrawl at its own free
will, due praise being given for every appearance of care, or truth, in
its efforts. It should be allowed to amuse itself with cheap colors
almost as soon as it has sense enough to wish for them. If it merely
daubs the paper with shapeless stains, the color box may be taken away
till it knows better: but as soon as it begins painting red coats on
soldiers, striped flags to ships, etc., it should have colors at
command; and, without restraining its choice of subject in that
imaginative and historical art, of a military tendency, which children
delight in, (generally quite as valuable, by the way, as any historical
art delighted in by their elders,) it should be gently led by the
parents to try to draw, in such childish fashion as may be, the things
it can see and likes, birds, or butterflies, or flowers, or fruit... Continue reading book >>